Objective: Urticaria is a common condition in children. The causative agent for urticaria cannot be found in the majority of cases. In this study we aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of the patients diagnosed as urticaria in our outpatient allergy clinic.

Material and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of children with a diagnosis code of urticaria who were followed up in our allergy outpatient clinic between September 1st 2008 and August, 31st 2009.results: Two hundred fifty-eight patients were enrolled, of whom 159 (61.2%) were male. The patients ranged from 6 months to 17 years old (mean 6.43 ± 3.97, median 6 years)with 173 (67%) diagnosed as acute urticaria, 49 (19%) as episodic urticaria and 36 (14%) as chronic urticaria. Physical urticaria was seen in five cases (two as cholinergic, three as cold urticaria). Angioedema accompanied the urticaria in 31 (12%) cases. Skin biopsies were performed for five patients with characteristics of vasculitic urticaria and biopsy findings of three patients were consistent with vasculitic changes. Infections were the most common etiologic factors and were seen in 122 patients (47%). Ten (3.9%) of the patients had food allergy and 6 (2.3%) had drug allergy. Two patients with chronic urticaria had thyroid autoantibody positivity although they were confirmed as being euthyroid according to blood thyroid hormone levels.conclusion: Our results show that the most common type of urticaria is the acute type and the most common etiological factor is infection in children

Keywords: Atopy, Allergy, Children, Infection, Urticaria